For preventing the blooming phenomenon, there is provided an image pickup apparatus comprising a solid-state image pickup device adapted for a first readout method in which plural pixels are added to be read and a second readout method in which plural pixels are not added; and a circuit for applying a predetermined substrate voltage common to the first and second readout methods in an exposure period of the solid-state image pickup device and applying a predetermined substrate voltage corresponding to each readout method of the solid-state image pickup device in a period from the end of exposure of the solid-state image pickup device to the start of transfer to the signal transfer channel.
Legal claims defining the scope of protection, as filed with the USPTO.
1. An image pickup apparatus comprising: an image pickup device for converting light into an electrical signal; a substrate voltage supply for selectively applying at least first and second substrate voltages to said image pickup device; a drive controller for controlling a first mode of driving said image pickup device with application of the first substrate voltage and for controlling a second mode of driving said image pickup device with application of the second substrate voltage; and a signal processing circuit which suppresses a difference between color reproducibility of a first image, based on an output signal of said image pickup device in said first mode, and color reproducibility of a second image based on the output signal in said second mode, which difference is caused by a difference in sensitivity between said first and second modes.
2. An image pickup apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein said signal process portion includes a white balance adjustment portion for adjusting the white balance of the signal from said image pickup device, and suppresses the difference between the color reproducibility of the first image and the color reproducibility of the second image by controlling said white balance adjustment portion.
3. An image pickup apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein said white balance adjustment portion includes a white balance detection portion for detecting a signal which is estimated to be white, from the signal output from said image pickup device and a white balance control portion for adjusting the signal from said image pickup device on the basis of a result of a detection by said white balance detection portion, and suppresses the difference between the color reproducibility of the first image and the color reproducibility of the second image by controlling said white balance detection portion.
4. An image pickup apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein said signal process portion includes a hue adjustment portion for adjusting the hue of the signal from said image pickup portion and suppresses the difference between the color reproducibility of the first image and the color reproducibility of the second image by controlling said hue adjustment portion.
5. An image pickup apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the first mode is a mode for effecting the addition of signals of a plurality of pixels included in said image pickup apparatus to output a thus-added signal from said image pickup device, and the second mode is a mode for effecting the output of the signals from said image pickup device without adding the signals of the plurality of pixels.
6. An image pickup apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the first mode is a mode for a moving image picking-up operation.
7. An image pickup apparatus comprising: an image pickup device provided with plural color filters; a substrate voltage supply for selectively applying at least first and second substrate voltages to said image pickup device; a drive controller which selectively controls a first mode of driving said image pickup device by applying the first substrate voltage and a second mode of driving said image pickup device by applying the second substrate voltage; and a signal processing circuit for processing a signal from said image pickup device; wherein said signal processing circuit includes a white balance adjustment portion, for adjusting the white balance of the signal from said image pickup device, wherein said white balance adjustment portion includes a white balance detection portion for detecting a signal which is estimated to be white, from the signal from said image pickup device, a white balance control portion for adjusting the signal from said image pickup device on the basis of a result of a detection by said white balance detection portion; and wherein said white balance detection portion effects different processings in the first and second modes, respectively.
8. An image pickup apparatus according to claim 7 , wherein said white balance adjustment portion is arranged so that a white discrimination range of the detection of the signal which is estimated to be white differs between the first mode and the second mode.
9. An image pickup apparatus according to claim 7 , wherein the first mode is a mode for effecting the addition of signals of a plurality of pixels included in said image pickup apparatus to output a thus-added signal from said image pickup device, and the second mode is a mod for effecting the output of the signals from said image pickup device without adding the signals of the plurality of pixels.
10. An image pickup apparatus according to claim 7 , wherein the first mode is a mode for a moving image picking-up operation and the second mode is a mode for a still image picking-up operation.
Cooperative Patent Classification codes for this invention. Click any code to explore related patents in that topic.
May 12, 2000
September 20, 2005
Browse 5M+ US patents with plain-English claim translations and AI-generated analysis.